Love comes alive in 'Almost, Maine'

Josiah Robinson and Lauren Bowler are two of four actors playing 19 characters in "Almost, Maine," opening Wednesday at West Texas A&M University.

Four actors will play 19 lovestruck residents of a tiny New England town in a new play at West Texas A&M University.

“It’s crazy,” student director Julia Rucker said.

“It definitely requires a level of versatility from all of them, which thankfully they have provided so easily.”

John Cariani’s “Almost, Maine” tells about 20 short stories exploring what New York Times critic Charles Isherwood called “the sudden thunderclap of love and the scorched earth that sometimes follows.”

“Each couple — or I guess trio, depending on the scene — explores a different kind of love,” Rucker said.

Most of the stories contain elements of magic realism, too, from a woman who walks around the globe to prove her love to a kiss that wakes a man from a numbed existence.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Jan. 19, as well as 2:30 p.m. Jan. 19.

Tickets are $11 for adults, $8 for seniors and students and free for WT students, faculty and staff.